Christmas Cookies
by IronAmerica
Summary: Skylar's not sure if she should be thrilled or horrified that her daughter has picked up Simon's sweet tooth. Set in the Mother Knows Best 'verse.


It's a new story! Amazingly, I _can_ write fluff.

Happy birthday, Orwell. Many happy returns.

Un-beta'ed, so quibble away.

- o – o -

Christmas Cookies

Skylar Addams liked spending time with her boyfriend—soon to be her fiancé again, if things went well. Zoe liked spending time with her daddy too, which was a bonus. The mother was quite happy to be domestic (even though she _was_ still rebuilding the tech in Simon's apartment, just because that was in her nature). Unfortunately, there were some downsides…

Like Christmas. She adored Christmas, because it was a great time to bring out her best toys to give her loved ones—Zoe had been the only one for a while, but then Simon had become involved in her life again. Living with Simon during the holiday taught her one thing, though: Zoe's sugar addiction had _definitely_ come from Simon. Simon had to have one of the worst loves of sugar of anyone Skylar had ever met. (And considering their daughter, that was saying something…)

Simon had been a child prodigy. It hadn't been easy for him, growing up in Australia. He'd dealt with it by drinking coffee by the gallon. He'd told her, quite frankly, during their first date that he _still_ despised the taste of coffee. The doctor had told her this as he poured sugar into his mug of coffee until it was about the consistency of mud or tar. Skylar believed him. She'd learned, over the course of their weird relationship that the sugar thing extended far beyond diluting his coffee to…a lot.

Christmas made that a lot more apparent. She'd rebuilt his oven so it could make Christmas cookies for her, because she had to work on other things—like keeping people from finding out that she was an Alpha, or that she was living with her ex-ex-boyfriend again. It would have been fine for her to leave them alone to bake, but Simon had come home early—earlier than he'd said he'd be off-shift from County General, anyways. He'd discovered the cookies.

Skylar sighed and watched as her work was demolished in seconds by her boyfriend and daughter. It was easy to see that Simon was Zoe's father—they had the exact same smirk when they were doing something they _knew_ would drive her up the wall. Like eating the cookies before she could decorate them. (She did _that_ by hand, because it was relaxing and there was no way to cheat. She'd refrained from building a machine that would do it for her, because normality in some things was always nice.)

"Sy," Skylar said, interrupting Simon's lesson on how to properly dunk a Christmas cookie, "babe, what are you doing?"

Simon smiled at her, looking guilty. "Nothing?" he offered, giving her his best "I'm innocent, I swear" face. Skylar raised an eyebrow, arms crossed over her chest. "Want a Christmas tree?" Simon asked, holding up one of the surviving sugar cookies. He smiled at her, obviously hoping it would distract her.

"I'm raising _two_ children," Skylar muttered under her breath, nibbling on the cookie as she mixed another batch of cookie dough. The cookie was delicious and perfect—as expected. The Alpha sighed and rolled her eyes as Simon wrapped his arms around her waist, chin resting on the top of her head. "Yes, Simon?" she asked, finishing her cookie.

"Zoe's watching Christmas cartoons now, and we've got fifteen minutes before the next batch of cookies are done," Simon whispered in her ear, breath warm as it ghosted over the outer shell of her ear. Skylar shivered pleasantly at the touch.

"I have to watch the cookies so they don't burn," Skylar replied, putting the tray into the oven. Simon kissed the back of her neck.

"I saw what you did to my oven, dear Sky," Simon said. "It'll turn off on it's own when the cookies are done." He smiled as she glowered at him.

"And is there any guarantee that you won't eat this batch before I can decorate them?" Skylar asked, leaning against the counter as she studied Simon. He gave her a sweet smile.

"I could be persuaded…" he said slowly, giving her a look that sent shivers up and down her spine.

"What did you have in mind?" Skylar asked, giving him a smile that promised lots of good things. Simon grinned and kissed her softly. Skylar wondered when the radio had been turned on, and just when Simon had decided that soft, jazzy Christmas music was alright to listen to.

"I was thinking some slow dancing to start with," Simon said, pulling her away from the counter. "Then, we can kiss… And move on to better things after we get Zoe to take her nap…"

Skylar laughed and slapped Simon's shoulder. "You tease," she said, smiling widely. "What could possibly be better than kissing?"

Simon pulled back to look at her. "Well, if you don't want it…"

The Alpha glared at him, eyes dark. "Simon. Don't tease me. You won't like the consequences—I'll burn your cookies," she added, backtracking quickly. Some phrases and topics were taboo around Simon. Accusing him of being a tease was one of them. Threatening to burn his Christmas cookies was a good distraction, though, and it worked. Simon gave her a betrayed look and sighed.

"Well, I _was_ going to wait a few more days to give this to you, but since you've threatened my sugar cookies…"

Skylar's eyes grew wide as he pulled a familiar box out of his pocket.

"I know it's probably not what you wanted—I still can't find AlienWare in any of the electronics stores, but—" Whatever Simon was going to say was cut off as Skylar threw herself into his arms, hugging him tightly enough to leave marks. She buried her faces in his shoulder, trying to decide if she was going to cry, laugh, smile, or kiss him. In the end, she did all four, laughing and smiling through the tears as she kissed him.

"This is better than Christmas cookies," Skylar whispered, kissing Simon's cheek later that evening. Simon kissed her palm and smiled softly at her, propping his feet up on the coffee table.

"I think so," he agreed.

Skylar decided she could tolerate her fiancé's sugar addiction. As long as he was responsible about it, it was alright. As long as she had him, it would be alright.

Some things _were_ better than Christmas cookies.

- o – o -

So, what did you think? Good? Bad? Aren't these two a cute couple? Drop a line and let me know!


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